I’ve been emailing back and forth with Becca for a while now. After that first email, we have formed a bond that I can’t really explain. I wasn’t expecting for her to pour her heart out in her response email. Hell, I wasn’t expecting to pour my heart into mine either, but it just felt right. That she would understand my thoughts and feelings.

I open up my laptop and see that I have a new email from Becca. I immediately click on it and begin reading.

I can’t stop the smile the spreads across my face. The two never cease to brighten my day. Becca has told me about how she felt moving was the only answer. How everyone in her hometown, even her parents, were coddling her and only saw a broken woman who lost her husband. She was afraid that they would never let her become anything more than a widow. She told me how she had just discovered she was pregnant when she was notified her husband had died, meaning little Olivia has never known her father. I am completely in awe of her strength and courage.

Just the thought of never knowing my own child, my heart breaks for both of them. Becca and Olivia are in my thoughts constantly. I rush to the computer every day to check my email and respond as quickly as possible. I thirst to know more about the two of them. Becca is perfect in every way, just the kind of woman I can see myself spending the rest of my life with.

I know it sounds crazy, but I can see myself falling in love with her if I’m not careful. I know she barely knows me, besides what I put in these letters, but I won’t be here forever, and my term is almost up. If these feelings are mutual, I may just take the leap of faith and see where things could go between us.

I know about Olivia’s obsession with Batman until she recently gave the title to someone else. I’m not going to lie, it made me think about the little girl I spoke to with my sister a while ago, but the chances of those two knowing each other are so slim. Olivia is also the quirkiest little girl ever! She loves being a princess, playing with worms, and Becca says she has the most infectious smile. I desperately want to see them both.

I don’t want to pressure her into sending me a picture, but her simple description of having long black hair and green eyes doesn’t do her justice. Maybe if I bite the bullet first and send her a picture, she will send me one back. I hit the reply button, ready to send off an email, and I notice someone enter the bunkhouse. Turning around, I say, “Brass, what’s up?”

“Phone call, CO is waiting.” The kid has come a long way since he joined the team. His girl is good for him, helping him focus, giving him purpose and direction.

“Thanks, I’m on my way.”

Looks like my email to Emma is going to have to wait. Returning my laptop to my footlocker, I head to take the phone call. Nothing good ever comes from the CO calling.

The team is gathered so we can brief everyone at the same time, we have a recon mission that we have to leave for tomorrow. Time to start packing.

“Alright guys, the Pentagon got some intel on a new terrorist group about 40 kilometers west of us. We are to go in, assess the situation, and gather intel. This is recon only, but you know as well as I do that shit turns fast, and we may end up fighting our way out. However, they don’t want this group to be aware of our location, so close to their hideout. We need to do everything in our power to get in and out undetected. The helo will drop us as close as they can, but we’ll have to huff it to avoid detection. We leave tonight at 2100. Call home, write emails, whatever you need to do. We’ll be out of comms for at least seven days with only the supplies we take with us. Questions?”

They all shake their heads, itching to get to a computer. This is short notice but nothing we aren’t familiar with. If things keep going this way, we’re going to be extremely busy this deployment.

With the group going to email their girls, I head to my footlocker and grab my laptop. It’s time for me to shoot off an email of my own.

I attached a picture of the team and I from the last deployment and hit send before I lose my nerve. I let out the breath I didn’t know I was holding and shut my laptop. No sense in worrying about it now, what’s done is done. Hopefully she takes the hint and decides to send me a picture of herself in return, maybe one of her and Olivia too.

It’s crazy to feel this way about someone I’ve never met, never heard her voice, but it doesn’t make it any less true. The intense need to protect them from the assholes of the world is strong like they’re a part of me. I already feel responsible for both of them. Shutting my laptop, I put it back in my footlocker. Trading it for my kit, it’s time to go do what I’ve been trained to do. Protect the ones I care about from the bad guys. It’s time to keep Gotham safe.